n the topic of gender equality, we have looked at a variety of examples

but in this document, I will be writing about gender equality in sports. In

most major sports, such as football and tennis, women athletes gain less
prize money and less prestigious salaries than their male counterparts.
This is partly due to the common stereotype that men are stronger and
better than women. A recent study by the BBC shows that 30% of 56
sports inspected do not hand out equal prize money and salaries. Popular
sports such as football, tennis, cricket and squash are only some of the
many criticized for not giving equal pay.
For example, the 2014 FIFA World Cup winners, Germany, received
twenty eight million pounds, twenty one million euros more than the
winners of the Women's World Cup, USA. According to Kelly Simmons, a
spokesperson for the Football Association (FA), the governing body of
English football stated that the reason for these gargantuan differences in
pay is that womens football has really exploded in the last few years and
to keep the boom going they will invest twelve million pounds, but the FA
has decided that they should not be investing in more prize money yet.
In the 1920s an average crowd of 50,000 raucous fans turned up to see
Dicks Ladies Play in the Women's Football League. Not long after a
whistleblower gave a document to the FA which they later released,
stating that felt impelled to express the strong opinion that the game of
football is quite unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged.
After the report, attendances dropped and have never reached the same
levels since. To tackle this FIFA, the governing body in football has passed
a law that in every World Cup starting from now, every team must have a
woman medic and coach. Hope Powell, the ex England Women's football
teams coach claimed that highly experienced women coaches are being
forced out of the game by novice coaches and such decisions can cause a
woman to end her coaching career, throwing away years of promising
work because of inequality. The situation gets even worse in mens
football. Have you ever seen a female coach, referee and medic? No, I
havent either. Arent women as capable of men when deciding, thinking
and running?
On the other side Ivan Peter Khodabakhsh, CEO (Chief Executive
Officer) of the Ladies golf tour strives to achieve equal pay, he quoted that
"The current significant difference in the prize money between men's and
women's golf cannot be justified, taking into consideration the
competitiveness and quality of professional women's golf worldwide," he
told a reporter of BBC Sport, Mr Khodabakhsh also added that to have no
pay disparity it would need a considerable effort from the media, the
governing body of golf and corporations.
Sports such as squash are starting to introduce equal pay soon,
according to Andrew Shelly, the chief executive of the governing body of
Squash, World Squash. Now, we have several brilliant female athletes,
and womens sport is finally acknowledged and people now realise that
sport doesnt hurt women. A prime example of this discrimination was
Beryl Burton, who smashed all the cycling records for men and women in

1967, but when the BBC released the shortlist for sportsperson of the
year, Beryl Burton wasnt even considered. This represents the leap we
have made from turning a blind eye to women athletes to thinking them
as superstars, but in some sports, women are woefully under represented.
A rare example of what women can do when coaching men was
when Amelie Mauresmo was announced as coach to British tennis
superstar Andy Murray. Many people smirked at Murrays decision but
under Mauresmos careful tuition, she led him to a first ever victory over
Rafael Nadal in the Madrid Masters and reaching the semis of the French
Open and the US Open, losing both times to eventual champion Novak
Djokovic. If all of us or reasonable percentage of us had women as
coaches, what would happen? As a popular saying goes, You never know
if you never try. Keeping on the topic of Tennis, it has made generally
good progresses during the years.
Nowadays, when you switch on your T.V, you see televised men and
women games and people now flock equally to see both men and women
and, not having a half empty stadium where women play. In 1973, with
the protests of Billie Jean King among others the U.S open allowed equal
pay. Over 30 years later, with the help of Venus Williams, Wimbledon
allowed equal pay. The reason that mens sport is watched the most is
purely because we see it every day everywhere and even during rubbish
games, journalists may write loads of reports, contributing to the eclipse
over mens sport over womens. Take for example after Jessica Ennis-Hills
victory in the Heptathlon, the Guardian interviewed several people who
said that they would like to watch men because they are stronger and
faster. To tackle this issue, UK Sport released a document on their web
page online stating
UK Sport aims to promote the highest standards of sporting conduct and
explore its wider social applications.
Initiatives include working with athletes, officials and key partners
to promote the highest standards of conduct and fair play, both on and of
the field of play. In addition, UK Sport takes a leading role in promoting
equality in sport to ensure there are no barriers to participation and
involvement in the running of sport for any social groups.
The overall aim is to support the development of a fair, equitable
and ethical world-class sporting system in the UK that is athlete-centred
and people-focused. Equality is about recognising and removing the
barriers faced by people involved, or wanting to be involved in sport. It is
about changing the culture of sport to one that values diversity and
enables the full involvement of disadvantaged groups in every aspect of
sport.
UK Sport embraces the spirit of all equalities legislation and is
committed to eradicating any form of unfair discrimination. We will not

tolerate discrimination either directly or indirectly, on the grounds of race,

disability, class or social background, religious belief, sexual orientation,
ethnic or national origins, gender, marital status, pregnancy, parental
status, age, colour or political persuasion. from UK Sport: "Equality." UK
Sport. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

Such agreements show a statement of intent from part of UK Sport

but these words have to be backed up with action and with a Tour Of
Britain for women recently announced it shows that this has had effect on
the sporting world. But to change the situation many young girls are
suffering from we should overhaul our P.E system. All genders should have
the opportunity to chose to do what they want, instead of doing Outdoor
Sports for boys and Dance for girls. These wrongdoings could put a girl off
sports for life, wasting a brilliant young talent. Sports bodies should have
more women on their boards and they should be more focussed on
women empowerment more than they are currently now. A stronger say
for women in sport can completely change the situation for women as
they voice their concerns. In conclusion, we are getting there but we still
need to improve several key ideas, such as removing the stereotype that
men are stronger than woman and to balance the scale of justice in the
right direction so that women in sport get more acknowledgement.